Age Only Matters if You're a Cheese!

There are dreams of love, life and adventure in all of us.
But we are also sadly filled with reasons why we shouldn't try.
These reasons seem to protect us, but in truth they imprison us. they hold life at a distance.
Life will be over sooner than we think.
If we have bikes to ride and people to love, now is the time.
Elizabeth Kübler-Ross

by Skip Cohen
​
It's Sunday, and most of you know what that means with my blog posts - I rarely write about anything related to business and marketing. I go with whatever's on my mind, and this morning, it's the challenge of aging. While I recognize I'm not getting younger and can't slow down the process, that doesn't change much in my attitude toward life.

I've noticed I creak a little longer when I get up in the morning, but that's about it. My fuse has gotten shorter and shorter over everything from being on hold with CVS to telemarketing calls and people who think they have a right to my time. I notice other little things, but overall, I'm the same knucklehead I was twenty years ago.

At the doctor's office the other day, this little old lady was checking in at the receptionist's window, and I heard her give her birthdate - she was five years younger than me! She shuffled away and sat down, and that's when it started to dawn on me: we don't all age at the same rate.

I can't slow down the aging of my body, but I have slowed it down on the "inside."

• First, it's about laughter and not taking life too seriously. I'm a work in progress, and I don't get it right all the time.
• Second, it's about sleep - getting enough of it. Nothing seems to get in my way when I have a great night's sleep.
• Third, is my immediate family around me. At this point, that's Sheila and two pups. We've got a routine, starting with getting them up and out together at 7:00 am every morning.
• Fourth, there's always music playing in the house - From SPA radio on Pandora to Chris Stapleton and everything from Crosby, Stills and Nash to Pink - there's no telling what might be playing in our house.
• Last but not least, it's about feeling blessed...for those of you less spiritual, call it "lucky." It's about appreciating what we have in our lives and forgetting what we missed.

Here's my point - I love looking in my rearview mirror, but it's a balancing act. The key is never to stop looking forward and appreciating those backward glances down Memory Lane. It's about staying on track with one big fat general goal - living a great life. And with that favorite aged cheese you like - don't skimp on a good wine to go with it!

Wishing everybody a day to create a few new memories. It might sound trite, but we're all storytellers putting together the album of our lives, and there are still lots of blank pages to fill. Make it a weekend filled with peace, love for the people you care about most, and time to let them know it.

​Happy Sunday or Monday on the other side of the world!